Publications and Reports

NEW YEARBOOK ISSUED BY SERVICE

The 1940 Yearbook---Park and Recreation Progress, the second number of the annual publication, was being distributed during September through the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office. An outstanding feature of the new issue is the marked increase in the number of contributing writers from without the Service.

"Never have we so needed our parks and monuments," wrote Secretary Ickes in his preface on "Parks and Peace." "The well-being of useful communities, equipped for play, rest, and recreation as well as work, is one guarantee of America's safety for the future. . . It seems to me that our park program, sponsored by federal and state governments, is a program of peace, protecting and conserving both our natural and human resources. I am happy to have a part in it.

"Supervision of the National Park Service is one of the rewarding tasks of the Secretary of the Interior," commented Mr. Ickes, adding that the job has been made the more interesting because of federal and state cooperation in park and recreational planning and development. "I am struck," he said, "by America's great, good fortune in having a need for such a report; in having parks to be reported upon in every state that provide elbow room for our citizens."

"California's Investment in State Parks" is the title of an article written by Newton B. Drury before he left his post as acquisition officer of the California State Park Commission to become new director of the Service. E. D. Rivers, former Governor of Georgia, is author of an article on the park system of his state.

Among other contributors to the Yearbook who discuss various aspects of the park and recreational activities of the federal, state, and local governments and commissions are Charles G. Sauers, general superintendent of the Cook County Forest Preserve District of Illinois; C. B. Whitnall, of the Milwaukee County Park Commission; Charles A. DeTurk, director of State Parks, Lands and Waters of Indiana; Dr. L. B. Sharp, director of Life Camps; Roland C. Geist, founder of the College Cycle Club of New York; S. Herbert Hare and Harland Bartholomew, landscape architects and city planners; Judge Clifford H. Stone, director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board; George Nason, landscape architect; Ross Caldwell, Division of Parks, State of Illinois, and Frederick C. Hageman, architect and consultant to the Civilian Conservation Corps on La Purisima Mission restoration in California.

Articles on similar subjects were contributed by Colonel Richard Lieber, chairman of the board of the National Conference on State Parks; Laurie D. Cox, professor of Landscape and Recreational Management, New York State College of Forestry, Syracuse University; Phillip R. Elwood, professor of Landscape Architecture at Iowa State College; Arthur C. Parker, director of the Rochester Museum of Arts and Sciences, and William H. Carr, assistant curator of education, American Museum of Natural History.

NEW NATIONAL ARCHIVES GUIDE AVAILABLE

A Guide to the Material in the National Archives (Government Printing Office, Washington, 1940; 40 cents paper, 70 cents cloth) has just come from the press to supersede a preliminary guide issued early in 1938. The 303-page volume explains that the Archives was established in 1934 for "the concentration and preservation of such noncurrent records of the Government of the United States as appear to have administrative, research, or informational value and the administration of such records so as to facilitate their use by officials, scholars, or others to whom they might be of service."¹ The new guide is designed to make known to prospective users of the rich accumulation of records something of their character, scope, and value. The publication, sectioned for reference under governmental departments and bureaus, lists National Park Service materials in three categories:

1. Early records relating to national parks and monuments, 1872-1915. These include 26 linear shelf feet of correspondence, superintendents' reports, and other reports and memoranda relating to all national parks from the date of their establishment to 1907 when the filing system was reorganized. Records for Hot Springs and the Yellowstone are the largest group. There are letters concerning the creation of the Yellowstone and reports of Nathaniel P. Langford, its first superintendent. Also included are financial reports from all parks for the period 1906-1911, and a small quantity of records relating to national monuments for the years 1906-1915.

2. Scrapbooks of newspaper clippings, 1917-1925. The seven shelf feet contain clippings, some of them dating from 1915, which were assembled under direction of Stephen T. Mather, first director of the Service. They are arranged in 46 volumes by parks or topics. Dates and origins are indicated.

3. Daily files of outgoing correspondence, 1936. There are 25 feet of carbon copies of letters and memoranda sent from the various offices. Earlier files of the same character have been destroyed.

Another listing of Service materials is contained in the appendix of the guide in which attention is directed to preservation by The Archives of tracings and blue prints of certain government buildings which no longer exist, of records relating to construction of the Washington Monument, and to Rock Creek Park. There also are 100 linear feet of records of the Potomac Company and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company for the period 1785-1889.

After explaining that the total quantity of records in the Archives was doubled to 320,000 linear feet in the period from June 30, 1937, to December 31, 1939, the terminal date for the receipt of materials described in the new guide, the introduction points out that the work will have to be rewritten later for the inclusion of new files. Prospective researchers should consult the Division of Reference concerning possible restrictions governing records in which they may be interested.

STORY OF BLACKBEARD REPRINTED

Under the title, "No Scareheads Screamed the News 221 Years Ago When Blackbeard the Pirate Lost His Shaggy Head," The Quill, a monthly magazine published by the Sigma Delta Chi fraternity in the interest of journalism, reprinted in its August issue (Vol. XXVIII, No. 8), the article, "Blackbeard the Pirate Breaks into Print," which appeared in The Regional Review for June 1939 (Vol. II, No. 6).